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FORCE BILL. 



SPEECH 



l^ 



OF 




HON. HENRY C. BURNETT, OF KENTUCKY, 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, FEBRUARY 26, 1861. 




The bill to autliurize tlie Presldoiit to call out the mili- 
tary force of the country, and to accept of volunteers in 
certain cases, being under consideration — 

Mr. BURNETT said: 

Mr. Spe.\ker: It is not my purpose to enter 
upon a discussion of the details of this bill. I re- 
gret to say, as was said by the gentleman from 
Virginia, [Mr. Pryor,] that I am persuaded the 
passage of this bill is a foregone conclusion. In- 
deed, from the moment of its introduction by the 
member from Ohio, [Mr. Stanton,] I have enter- 
tained no doubt it was the intention of the dom- 
inant party to pass it, and that nothing but the 
momentous consequences to the country which 
its passage must involve, deterred that party from 
a resort to the previous question, which stifles all 
debate. It would then have been passed without 
being printed, and without an opportunity to mem- 
bers on this side of the House to examine its pro- 
visions. It might have been as well thus if the 
party which is in a majority here had the nerve to 
consummate the system of rule which this bill 
proposes to inaugurate. The steps of unlicensed 
power should always be stealthy, and as secret as 
possible. 

Mr. Speaker, in my opinion, this bill proposes 
■what is tantamount to a declaration of war. The 
gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Curtis] says this cry 
of war constitutes the whole stock in trade of this 
side of the Chamber; for that war, war, has been 
the refrain of evei-y speech made from the benches 
on this side; yet I think I can prove, even to him, 
if he will attend, that there is more of fact than 
fancy in the assertion that the passage of this bill 
means war on the slaveholding States, and that it 
-can mean nothing else. That gentleman said the 
principles of this bill had been spread upon our 
statute-books since 1793. This is an error in point 
of fact or construction. No act, like this under 
consideration, has ever received the sanction of 
an American Congress, or of any American Ex- 
ecutive. It contains leading principles which have 
appeared in no other law, especially upon the sub- 

J'ect of calling out the militia of the several States. 
t is by these new principles it must be character- 
ized, and should be condemned. 

The men who framed the Constitution neither j 
authorized nor contemplated the use of the mili-; 



; tary power of this Government except in subor- 
dination to the civil authority. The history of 
: the Constitution, the language of the Constitution, 
I the proceedings of the first Congi'ess, abundantly 
|[ prove the fact I state; but especially is that fact 
j salient when it refers to the power of this Gov- 
j ernment over the militia of the States. If gen- 
; tlomen will refer to the debat(;s of the Virginia 
I i convention, when that body was engaged in the 
[ discussion of the Federal Constitution, they will 
i see that when the clause authorizing a call upon 
, the militia of the States to suppress insurrection 
[and to repel invasion was under consideration, 
Patrick Henry assailed it upon the ground that 
it might be so perverted as to enable the Federal Gov- 
ernment to make war upon the States, and to call out ■ 
the militia to commit hostilities xipon the people of 
the several States. Mr. Madison repelled this idea. 
He said emphatically that this power could only 
j be used in subordination to the civil authority. He 
instanced the case in which it had been necessary 
to call out the militia of Virginia to break down 
a band of smugglers near Alexandria. In this 
discussion, Mr. Madison used an illustration most 
apposite to the case which calls forth this bill. 
He said, in the event that a State were disposed to 
renounce its allegiance to the Federal Government, 
this clause of the Constitution was so restrictive that 
it would afford a PROTECTioNioi/ie people who might 
take that course. When a proposition was made 
to authorize the Federal Government to make war 
upon a State, if necessary to the enforcement of 
the Federal laws, the convention which framed 
the Constitution expressly denied such power. 

The law which was passed by the first Con- 
gress — the law of 1792 — was framed by men who 
made the Constitution. It was wise. It provides 
for calling forth the militia in aid of the laws of 
the United States, only when the President shall 
be notified by a district judge that their execu- 
tion is opposed, in a State, by a combination too 
powerful to be suppressed by the force at the 
command of the marshal. What is that force.' 
The posse comitatus — the force of civil society. 
When that is too weak, then civil functionaries 
may call for aid, but not until then. The Presi- 
dent must then call first upon the militia of the 
State, and cannot call on the militia of any other 






Slate than that in which the combination makes 
front, unless the militiii of that State rcfiiSL' tool)ey 
orders. But this law expired by its own limita- 
tion; and besides, it was repealed in 1795, the noti- 
fication to the President by the district judge bcin^ 
dispensed with. The" principle was preserved, 
namely, that until the civil power is exhausted, 
the military arm of Government does not come 
into action; and, when it is invoked, it acts only 
so long as tht; exigency exists which required the 
civic authority to summon its aid to the due exe- 
cution of the civic function, lo which its subordi- 
nation is ever to he observed. 

To authorize a call upon the militia by the Pres- 
ident, in order to execute the laws in a Stiite, these 
conditions are necessary: 

1. It must be to assist the civil power lo execute 
a taw of the United Slates. 

•2. It must be only when the civil power, after 
attempting to execute it, and fniVing, has exhausted 
the powero///if»iiars/jai, which is exactly the power 
of a sherifl' in a county. 

3. It must be when such a law is obstructed bij 
a combination too powerful for the posse comitalus. 

The act of 1H07 authorizes the President to use 
the land and naval forces of the United States in 
all cases where it would be lawful for him to call 
forth the militia, and for the same purposes. Are 
not these grants of power sufficient? 

The bill now before the House proposes an ex- 
tension of these laws to a new object, namely , fo in- 
surrection against the authority of the United States, j 
This new object introduces a new principle into 
our system of Government, and it is to that I ob- 
ject—against that I protest with all the emphasis 
of which I am capable. The cases of insurrection 
provided for by existing laws, are cases of in- 
surrection in a State "against the government 
thereof;" against the State govei-nment; and upon 
the call of the Legislature of a State, or, in case 
it Ciinnot lie convened, upon the call of the execu- 
tive of the State, the President may call forth the 
militia of that Stale and other States, and may use 
the land and naval forces of the United Stales to 
suppress the insurrection. The object is to main- 
tain the lts:itimale municipfd sovereignty of the 
States where it is unable to maintain itself. 

But you now are asked to authorize the Presi- 
dent to use these same means in a Slate lo sup- 
press an insurrection against the authority of the 
United Slates. You have already these means in 
his hands lo execute the laws of the United Slates; 
but you are asked also for them to suppress an in- 
surrection against the authority of the United Slates! 
An insurrection by whom? By States .' Shall tlie 
President judge of the exigency; shall he determ- 
ine that in a State, not complaining, the authority 
of the United Slates is rebelled against; and shall 
he summon the militia of other States to sustain 
or vindicate the authority of the United States by 
marching in to such uncomplaining Slate? Suppose 
the Suite, through its Legislature, calls on him to 
summon the militia to put down this array as an 
insurrection against the government of the Slate: you 
will have laws on the statute-book authorizing 
Buch a call and requiring of him obedience to it. 
How will he execute both? li is jiluin that in 
such a ca."?e the authority of the United States, 



according to the view of the Executive, will over- 
ridethcsovereignty oftheState,and thathis power 
will be asserted by the troops he may choose lo accept 
under thisbill, though they come from otherStates, 
or may be (he soldiers of the regular Army of the 
United Slates! It is no more or less, sir, than 
an act of centralization — of consolidation, utterly 
destructive of the principles upon which this Gov- 
ernment was originally founded and upon which 
it has thus far rested. 

Mr. Hamilton, in his notions of Federal power, 
did never conceive a scheme as bad as this. In 
the hands of an ambitious leader, and in times of 
high party excitement, such a law as this would 
be a written warrant for the overthrow of the Con- 
stitution and the centralization of all power in the 
hands of the President of the United States. He 
may preach a crusade against the jieople of any 
State. Under such a law his myrmidons would 
invade a State, turn its Legislature out of doors at 
[the point of the bayonet, capture its executive, 
i overthrow its judiciary, quarter Federal troops 
I upon its people, and thus enforce his idea of tn- 
surrection against the authority of Iht United Slates'- 
The gentleman from Iowa is an educated soldier. 
It may be that he sees in all this military para- 
phernalia to be attached to the Presidenl's power, 
(already immense,) nolhing adverse to the prin- 
ciples heretofore recognized under the laws of our 
country; but, I submit to those whose ways have 
been in the paths of peace, and who have heard 
that the price of a people's liberty is eternal vigil- 
ance, whether this law is not the death-mark 
upon the already pallid features of a Government 
whose health has been wasted by the horrible 
doses administered by the hands of that political 
empiricism which, in its impatience, now pro- 
poses to substitute for stow poison tiiis process 
of sudden strangulation? 

Mr. Speaker, I warn you that the freemen of 
this country will never submit lo this law. When 
passion cools, they will look upon il with horror; 
attempt to execute it, and every true man in the 
States will resist it at every hazard, and to the 
last extremity. This act proposes to extend the 
action of the laws of 1795 and 1807 to a case of 
insurrection against the authority of the United 
Slates. 

Mr. CURTIS. This is not a bill to revive those 
acts. They are now in full force. This bill only 
amends those laws, by adding to them. 
I Mr. BURNETT. 1 understand. What I wish 
to learn is, what the gentleman means by " an 
insurrectio-n againsi the authority of the United 
States?" I confess I cannot conceive it, unless it 
has the elfecl upon which 1 have already com- 
mented, if this be the intention of the advocates 
of the bill, 1 want them to avow it publicly; and 
then I meet it promptly by saying it will be re- 
garded as a proclamation of war upon the soulherv 
Slates. 

1 call upon the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Staw- 
ton] to look wliat powers this bill confers upon 
the President. 

Mr. STAN TON. I will answer the gentleman, 
if he desires it. 

Mr. BURNETT. Not at this time. The gen- 
tleman will have an opportunity; fori take it he 



8 



will have the floor in reply to the remarks made 
generally on the bill. I was saying that the gen- 
tleman should look what powers this bill confers 
upon the President. They are unlimited, Mr. 
Speaker, both over the Army and Navy; unlim- 
ited, because he is to judge of the fact of the ex- 
istence of insurrection; because he is the exclu- 
sive judge of the act of insurrection; because he 
is left to define what is meant by " the authority 
of the United States;" unlimited, because, when 
lie accepts tlie act and fact as bringing his case 
within the statute, he may receive as lai-go an 
army as he can collect, commission all its officers, 
from lieutenants of a platoon to lieutenants gen- 
eral, leaders of corps d'armec, and turn this coun- 
try into a vast military camp. This bill places at 
his disposal millions of men, brave and ready for 
military enterprise. They are to be his own 
creations, and hold their positions subject only to 
his will. If you authorize him to call them into 
active service, yoa also pledge the public faith 
and public treasure to their payment. The Pres- 
ident has no civil authority to which he is to look 
up as a subordinate. He is a law unto himself. 
Is he to be restrained by Congress? For thirty 
days after the meeting of the next Congress he 
■will have this unlimited power. Until then, there 
will be no legal power to restrain him. Is there 
any probability he would then surrender the con- 
trol thus acquired .-' 

It may be this power would be surrendered by 
the elected President; but neither you, nor I, nor 
the American people know enough of him to con- 
clude with certainty even upon such a point; and 
surely with a legal right to raise, equip, organize, 
and officer such an army, and at his own discretion 
to launch it against the southern States, none of 
us can say that, willing as he mightbe to surrender 
the baton of the marshal for the insignia of the 
• presidential office, he would any longer have the 
power to do so. It is an odd experiment, a fear- 
ful experiment, and one which, according to every 
reasonable calculation to be drawn from the teach- 
ings of history, would eventuate in deeper civil 
commotions than those we have already expe- 
rienced, if it does not prove the grave of civil lib- 
erty in America. Congress will be adjourned on 
Monday next. Repose this vast authority in the 
hands of a man untried — heretofore measurably 
obscure — whose temper and appetites are un- 
known, and who can answer for the use to be 
made of this power before another Congress will 
be called together under the Constitution? 

This bill confers unbridled license upon the 
President to send forth armies to make war upon 
whom he pleases; to make that war as relent- 
less as passion, however malignant, or fanat- 
icism, however wild, may dictate. The homes of 
the people may be invaded by his soldiery; the 
country may be subjected to military authority, 
acting under the forms of law; and the peaceable 
citizen may be demoralized and debased, because 
his power of resistance may be ciit oft' by the force 
which Government throws into the hands of the 
President by this measure ! Yes, sir, members of 
the other side express well-feigned astonishment 
when we of this .side — desiring the peace and 
prosperity of the country, and seeking to recon- 



struct this Union, instead of rushing madly into 
conflict with its dismembered fragments — de- 
nounce this bill as the inauguration of an interne- 
cine war, with all its attendant horrors. We are 
taunted and jeered at when we strive to repress a 
collision at arms between bi-others. It in a decla- 
ration of war — a war which, if prosecuted, will be 
more fearful than any of the civil wars of which 
history furnishes a record. We denounce it, as 
every lover of the Union ought to do. Such a 
measure was never conceived of by the framers of 
the Constitution. They never dreamed that any 
such could be attempted by any subsequent Con- 
gress under the form of government which they 
organized. It invites public liberty to absolute 
sacrifice. 

Mr. Speaker, the House will pardon me while 
I look for a moment at the existing condition of 
the country, to ascertain the apology for this ex- 
traordinary proposition. There is no pretense 
of insurrection against the laws of any State; but 
there has been a withdrawal from this Govern- 
ment of six of the southern States, and this will 
be followed, probably, by the withdrawal of 
others. This measure points to this lamentable 
state of aff'airs, and proposes its correction by 
force. The States which have retired have re- 
sumed their sovereignty, and have, in the exer- 
cise of it, formed an association among themselves 
more agreeable than this, and in their judgment 
better adapted to the conservation of their social 
and industrial institutions. They have able men 
in their government — men who, but a few weeks 
since, were the counselors of this Government, 
and were regarded among its most brilliant orna- 
ments. It is certain they understand the theory 
of confederated republican government, and the 
bearing of a division of departmental power upon 
the public liberties. They have even adopted our 
own Constitution, to which they are accustomed, 
but with a reading upon which many of us insist 
as the true intent of that instrument. They hold 
out to us the olive branch of peace; they suggest 
negotiation for the practical settlement of disputed 
questions, and that we shall live apart from each 
other as friends, since we could not maintain that 
relation when dwelling together. 

Howis iheirproposal met? Gentlemen say they 
will not acknowledge their right of secession. I 
shall not stop to discuss the abstract right of se- 
cession. It is superseded by a practical fact, 
which stands before us in no questionable shape. 
Call it secession or revolution, or what you will, 
the pitcher has been broken at the fountain; its 
parts no longer cohere. It is useless to discuss 
amongourselves whether the southern States have 
done right or wrong in the stejjs they have taken. 
Their separation from this Union is a fact accom- 
plished, so far as their own will can influence its 
determination. 

The question recurs as a practical question, and 
we must meet it practically. Here are six mil- 
lion people, inhabiting the States which have with- 
drawn from further political connection with this 
Government; is it not advisable for us, better for 
ourselves and our posterity, to recognize the gov- 
ernment they have formed, as a friendly confed- 
eration ? In my opinion, this question should be 



i 



answered affirmatively. We should ;it once re- : 
reive ilioir commissioners, negotiate treaties with | 
them, and arrange nil subjects in whicii necessa- 
rily thcpe will be a coinmon interest. This is the ; 
policy of peace. On its adoption hang most mo- i 
mentous interests. The opposite policy is that of 
force. But, pass your force bills, and what will 
they amount to? Will they have a tendency to i 
reunite the States or the people? Nobody pre- j 
tends to believe it. i 

I have seen the reported speeches made by the 
President elect on his way here to be inaugurated 
to his high office. Some of these breathe the 
spirit of war: and I hear that, in private circles, '. 
he has told Kentucky to prepare for war. What 
fatuity ! What madness ! Admit that this Gov- 
ernment has a right to the forts which the south- 
ern people have captured: shall this country be 
drenched with fraternal blood to vindicate our 
title to property which we cannot expect to re- 
tain, and which the confederated States declare 
their willingness to nay for? Will you inaugu- 
rate such a war, under the bill of the gentleman 
from New York, [Mr. John Cochrane,] by send- 
ing vessels of war to blockade the southern ports? 

Mr. JOHN COCHRANE. Will the gentle- 
man yield to me for a moment? 

Mr. BURNETT. I decline to yield. 

Mr. JOHN COCHRANE. I want it under- 
stood the gentleman refuses to yield to me. 1 

Mr. BURNETT. I take it for granted the gen- [ 
tieman from New York will obtain the floor, and 
I hope he will not interrupt me. Mr. Speaker, 
suppose you shut out commerce from the south- 
ern ports: is that any thing but war? Do gentle- 
men not understand that it will be treated at once 
as an act of war? They surely must; ^et they 
press nieasures like these, and still say they de- 
sire conciliation, and do not wish to involve the 
country in civil war. t 

Mr. JOHN COCHRANE. Under my great; 
uncertainty of obtaining the floor, I hope the gen- 
tleman from Kentucky will yield me the floor for 
one moment. 

Mr. BURNETT. I cannot yield. 

Mr. JOHN COCHRANE. I resist the con- 
clusions of the gentleman's argument, and deny 
his premises in tola. He confounds premises and - 
conclusions. j 

Mr. BURNETT. Sir, if your bill passes Con- ; 
gress, it will confound the peace and happiness of; 
your country. I 

Mr. JOHN COCHRANE. Thai is but an 
opinion, and the gentleman from Kentucky does 
not raise himself in my estimation by having 
uttered it. 

Mr. BURNETT. 1 wantall my time,aud I de- 
■cline to turn aside for thesi- iriterruptions. While, 
•under the bill of the gentleman from New York,' 
[Mr. CociiiiAs'K,] you propose to enforce the col-i 
lection of revenui' in tin- seceded States, and thus 
to fill your national coders with the hard earnings 
of the southern pi-ople, whether ihey are willing 
or otherwise, another bill pniposes to deny to 
■them postal facilities extended to the rest of the 
Republic. This system of measures gentlemen 
on the other side characterize as measures of peace 
-and conciliation! Deny them postal facilities; 



take the property you claim at the point of the 
bayonet; enforce duties at southern ports at the 
mouth of the cannon; and teach them that this is 
y owr frntemal ajfeclinn ! Deny to them the ad- 
vantages springnig from the Federal system, but 
impose upon them all its burdens and heavy 
charges, and tell them that this is peace and justice! 
The language of this system of coercive measures 
will be easily comprehended by the people to whom 
it is addressed. It speaks an indorsenientof opin- 
io*), frequently expressed by southern statesmen 
in these Halls, that they were prnJUable to the 
General Government, and had been beasts of bur- 
den, lo ! these many years. You will say to them 
that the duties they pay on their own consump- 
tion, and which comes from their pockets, are not 
compensated by the protection they receive; that 
their contributions towards the public expendi- 
tures are so disproportioned to their share of ben- 
efits received, that it is asking too much of you to 
let them depart in peace. Such, Mr. Speaker, are 
the olive branches which gentlemen propose to 
hold out to win back the South! 

Mr. Speaker, it was not my intention to digress 
from the bill which is under our immediate con- 
sideration; but I could not refrain from this glance 
at a system of measures of which it is but a part, 
and which, in its entirety, must make civil war 
in this once happy country the regv.lur order of 
business. You cannot act upon foreign ships, sub- 
jecting them to seizure and confiscation for visit- 
ing the ports of a people who have cut off their 
political association' with this Union, and expect 
anything but tear. If you think that, by the pro- 
posed measure, we avoid responsibility, and, by 
such specious device, will force the other party 
to take the initiative, though you may not err, 
still it must end in war; and therefore, whoever 
arranges the instrumentalities which shall produce 
the effect, will be held bound, before God and 
mankind, for the consequences. If you mean to 
raise armies, and march them across the Slates 
to recover the public property, and blood flows 
as a necessary effect from such a step, you must 
be prepared to accept whatever result may super- 
vene u]>on the circumstances. It is folly to say 
this is not coercion; the enlarging margin of dis- 
quiet and disaffection, the constantly widening 
gulf of anarchy and revolution which will be dis- 
closed, will prove the ]iopuhir interpretation of 
that now ami)iguous word in our language. 

Let me bestow a few observations upon the 
second section of the bill now before the Hous?. 
It violates not only the plainest teachings of the 
framersof the Constitution, but the express letter 
of the instrument. It authorizes the President to 
receive volunteers into the service of theGovern- 
mi'iit from any country upon the face of the earth. 
He may receive them individually, or in compa- 
nies, battalions, squadrons, regiments, or divis- 
ions; there is no restriction or limitation upon his 
powi^-. It violates the Constitution in authorizing 
the President to commission all the ofliccrs, from 
the highest to the lowest grade. Congress has 
power, by the fifteenth paragraph of the eighth sec- 
tion ofthefirstariide of the Constitution, "topro- 
vide for organizing, arming, mid disciplining the 
militia, anil for governing such jiart of them as 




may be employed in the service of the United 
States, rese?*Di?!o' to the States respectively the appoint- 
ment of the officers," &c. Congress may " raise 
and support armies," but the appropriation for 
that use shall not be for a longer term than two 
years. Does the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 
Stanton] mean by this section to saddle upon 
the peopleof this country a standing army, whose 
numbers are only to be limited by the will of their 
constitutional commander-in-chief? If not, what 
does he mean by wrenching from the States a right 
of appointing the officers of their militia when 
employed in the service of the United States, and 
vesting this high power in thehands, notof Con- t 
grass, but of a single man? 

The political school to which the gentleman 
■was formerly attached, made the Halls of Coif- , 
gress resound with diatribes on the tyranny which ! 
must follow the union of the purse and the sword 
in the hands of one person. One would have sup- i 
posed that the gentleman would have carried some 
of the maxims formerly learned into the new party j 
•of which he is one of the most conspicuous, and, | 
he will permit me to say, one of the ablest lead- i 
ers; yet, if he, an astute lawyer and experienced 
legislator, commences the preparation for his Pres- 
ident by breaking down the plainest mandates of 
the Constitution, in order to concentrate power 
in the hands of the Executfve; if he, a man of; 
peaceful inclination and avocations, has so far 
forgotten the rights of the States as to propose to ; 
wrest from them the command of their militia, 
when employed in the Federal service — if these ; 
things are done by Republicanism in the green i 
tree, what shall we expect in the dry ? Sir, our ■ 
militia has frequently been called into the service 
of the United States. The battle-fields of the i 
Union have illustrated their valor and endurance.] 
Does the gentleman draw from their past action ; 
the reasons why he refuses to trust the appoint- 
ment of the officers to the States? What is tiie 
reason; what can be tiie reason for this distrust' 
of the States and this usurpation of their most 
patent privileges, unless we are, under Black Re- i 
publican rule, about to enter vipon a scheme of 
centralization and consolidation? ! 

Mr. Speaker, I would to Heaven I had the 
power of eloquence to reach the hearts of gentle- i 
men on the other side of this Chamber. I recog- ! 
nize them as my countrymen, and I address them ; 
as my fellow-citizens. I deeply deplore the course 
they have taken — still more deeply that which j 
they propose to pursue. I have ardently desired | 
the perpetuation of the Union; the maintenance of ; 
the honor, the integrity, the connection of the ' 
States, and the equality of their citizens. I have 
the honor to represent, in part, a State whose loy- 
alty to this Government has not been questioned; j 
whose devotion to its interests and its honor will j 
compare, without the loss of credit, with those of 
her sister States. Her Representatives have been j 
constant advocates for Union and justice. On j 
your blood-stained fields, the lives of her gallant | 
sons have attested her devotion to the flag of our j 
common country. Through all these troubles 
Kentucky has practiced a signal forbearance, at- 
testing, by the tenor of her opinions, the most 
ardent desire to maintain the Union, and to see i 



peace restored to a now distracted sisterhood of 
States. The voices of her Representatives have 
been in consonance with their active and earnest 
efforts to procure the adoption of such measures 
as may establish concord, and secure peaceful 
solutions of all our existing complications. 

And it has been so with other slaveholding Rep- 
resentatives. The gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. 
BoTELER,] at an early day of the session, pro- 
posed the organization of the committee of thirty- 
three, with a view to an enlightened discussion of 
our difficulties, and to the ascertainment and se- 
curity of peaceful future I'elations. The Senators 
from Kentucky have both labored with zeal in the 
same cause. 

The border State committee, composed of gen- 
tlemen who desire Union and peace, agreed upon 
a proposition. A scheme of like intent was offered 
by the gentleman from Tennessee, [Mr. Ether- 
idge;] but the other side would not permit them 
to be voted upon. Not only were the border State 
propositions rejected , but so has every suggestion 
the members from slaveholding States could make 
without dishonor and the absolute concession of 
political inferiority. 

Such has been the manner in which our over- 
tures have been met. On almost bended knees 
we have, from this side of the Chamber, petitioned 
gentlemen of the other side, who alone have the 
power to arrest the tide of disunion, by the adop- 
tion of such propositions as are consistent with 
our equality and justice, to present something for 
our consideration, likely to have the desired effect. 
This respectful request has been answered with 
" the proud man's contumely, the rich man's 
scorn. Not only have you refused to offer any 
thing here, but indignantly you have; elseiohere, 
scouted the propositions for compromise which 
assembled multitudes in my own State, of a party 
different from that to which I belong, have declared 
to be the minimum to which they would he driven. 

The southern people do not ask for concessions, 
they ask for rights, and plead for peace. Rights, 
Mr. Speaker, which are their inheritance from 
revolutionary sires; rights, which are theirs by 
toil and blood, wasted in building up this great 
partnership, of whose stock the free States now 
propose to become monopolists and sole directors; 
rights, which are theirs under the solemn adjudi- 
cations of the highest constitutional judiciary in 
the land. These rights were denied; these adju- 
dications have been spurned; these claims to a 
common benefit of diffusion for southern institu- 
tions, have been rejected. The answer to all has 
generally been, that the free States have the nu- 
merical and representative power, and must legis- 
late according to their own convictions of policy 
and ethics. By them it is pretended these are 
questions of liberty, of human rights, of con- 
science. With us, they are questions of consti- 
tutional compact, of contract, of equality, of inde- 
pendence. The southern people feel that in this 
Government they must be your equals, or must 
be vassals and provincials, hangers-on to your 
system, and only retained as " hewers of wood 
and drawers of water," for the profit to be made 
by their contributions to the support of the Gov- 
ernment you direct and control. 



I 



I cannot omit to dwell hero upon the Critten- ' 
dm resolutions, and their reception at tlie hands i 
of the dominant party. TJie resolutions are the I 

[)roduction of u Senator who has seen more of pub- 
ic service tlinn any other man at present in the i 
public councils — a man respected everywhere for i 
his pure patriotism and disinterested love of the j 
land of ins birth — a man of liberal talents and of! 
advanced years. Drawing; to a close of an illus- 
trious life, he bent all the energies of an exalted 
ambition to the consummation of this work of 
peace, and the deliverance of the Union from the 

ferils which environed it. No doubt he felt, what 
am frank to avow has been my own feeling con- 
etantly, that his resolutions fell short of the full 
measure of those rights which have been adjudged 
to exist for the people of the slavehnlding States. 
Still, as a means of quieting the agitation which 
threatened the pillars of our political fabric — as a 
•way of attaining the desired object, of removing 
the subject of slavery from Congress forever, and 
of excluding it from the arena of party politics — 
as a mode of reaching a finality upon a clangerous 
theme, and of restoring fraternal feelings between 
the people of this noble country, he lent his popu- 
lar name and gave his matured intellect in its most 
ardent efforts to secure their adoption. They met 
the approval of every individual upon this floor 
who had supported for the Presidency the candi- 
date of the Constitutional Union party. Every 
man here of the Democracy — of both wings of the 
Democratic party — would give them a candid and 
hearty support. 

These resolutions were tendered to the Senate. 
The Senator from Mississippi [Jefferson Davis] 
and the Senator from Georgia [Robert Toombs] 
announced in their places as Senators, that the 
passage of those nsolutions would stay the tide 
of the revolution whose waves were already wash- 
ing t^e base of the Capitol ; that they would pause 
and they would urge the southern people to accept 
the arrangement as a finality, and to stand by it, 
because, m some form, it would recognize the 
principle of equality. Popular meetings through- 
out the slave States indorsed and accepted this 
comprj)mise; and ma.sses of conservative men 
in the North memorialized Congress to accept 
them, and at least to send them to the people. 
How were they treated by the Republicans? Gen- 
tlemen on that side of this Chamber, who have 
taken any action in reference to the various meas- 
ures intended to secure conciliation, with a single 
cxcepti')n, have refused to assent to them. In the 
Senate they were superseded by Clark's amend- 
ment voted over them by Republican Senators en 
masse, by which the fiat declaration was made, as 
if in derision, that the provisions of the Consti- 
tution are ample; that it wants obedience rather 
than amendment; and that the extrication from 
our di/ficulties is to be secured by the enforcement 
of Ike lairs, rather than by concei'sions lo unreason- 
able demands. They seem to challenge the Bell 
men purticularly to .stand by the "Union, the 
ConstilutiDn, and the niforcement of the laws," 
as objects of primary desire which they had so 
eloquently held u|) lo the snulhern people, and 
which it wiiH now to be deemid unieasonable they 
Bhould Ko KDciii vi-ish to amend or change. 



The bill before the House is one of the ways 
I in whi<:h these Republicans propose " to enforce 
I the laws;" and it oflfers to the President an army 
' of untold numbers, lobe marched, if he so desires, 
against a part of the American people! 

I Mr. CORWIN. Mr. Speaker 

I Mr.BURNETT. I cannot yield the floor. But, 
I what else.' When the Crittenden compromise 
went to the committee of thirty-three, it was re- 
[ turned to this House recommended in a report 
j signed only by the gentleman from Tennessee, 
[Mr. Nelson,] though it was also recommended 
; in another and separate report, signed by Demo- 
crats on the committee. Thisis the way in wkich 
: the distinguished Senator'sschcme of conciliation 
has been met. Now, the people of Kentucky 
kave pronounced in favor of that plan with re- 
markable unanimity. All political jiarties united 
1 in its support, and their voice has been heard 
I through mass meetings. State conventions, and 
the Legislature. In obedience to my desire to 
I secure union and peace, I gave in my adhesion 
j to the Crittenden resolutions, even before they. 
j were presented to the Senate. I have been will- 
1 ing to stand by them. I am so now. 

Let me refer for a moment to the report of the 
committee of thirty-three, or rather of the chair- 
man of the committee of thirty-three. I say the 
chairman, because I understand there is no report 
of the majority of that committee, and that no- 
; body who was a member of that committee, ex- 
cept the chairman, is bound by the repdrt. That 
report, sir, stands in singular contrast with the 
i report from other members of the same commit- 
j tee, who are by everybody recognized as repre- 
i sentative men of the "Republican party. It is, by 
: itself, a most insuflicient and incomplete answer 
to the complaints of the South, but loses all its 
I force, as an index of political direction, when 
I <"ontrasted with the report made by other mem- 
' bers of the committee. The honorable chairman 
will pardon, I am sure, the idea I express in 
speaking of those other members as representative 
men of their party. We all concede his exceed- 
ing ability, but do not regard him as a representa- 
^ live man of the party in which he serves. Thia 
may be accepted as a compliment or not, as his 
own taste suggests. I only allude to my estimate 
to fix a fact in connection with his report, and to 
show the degree in which it will be received by 
the country. 

The report of the honorable chairman consists, 
first, of several reconmicndatory resolutions. If 
passed, these could be repealed on the first day of 
the next Congress. Second, of an amendment 
! to the Constitution prohibiting congressional in- 
terference with slavery in the States where it now 
exists. This safeguard, by constitutional restric- 
I lion upon a power no man of sense has pretended 
I to exist under the Constitution as it is now writ- 
ten, is not a guarantee of a right, but rather op- 
erates as a limitation upon aright; because it pre- 
supposes the power to exist, the exercise of which 
it has become necessary lo restrict. We should 
be very thankful, however, for this mile,if it was 
given with good intentions, whatever may be its 
want of value. 
The southern people have not been in dread of 




an attempted exercise of such a power so much 
. as they have been indignant at the usurpation 
which seeks to deprive them of that common right 
to the equal use and benefit of the common terri- 
tory, acquired by the expenditure of their blood 
under the national flag, or of their money paid 
out of the national Treasury, and which the free 
States now seek to take exclusive possession of. 
This usurpation startled apprehension when it 
was accompanied by the threat issued some years 
ago by Mr. Giddinoj.s, of Ohio; namely, that the 
purpose and policyljf the party in the free States 
was to wall in the slave States with a cordon of 
free Slates; and when slavery was cribbed, or so 
confined that it could not expand, it would suffo- 
cate, or sting itself to death. What was then re- 
garded as the raving of a zealot, is now pro- 
claimed as the settled policy of a great political 
party, to be permitted to hold its course unchal- 
lenged, providing the promise is given not to abol- 
ish slavery in the States. It is, in the States, sub- 
ject alone to their sovereignty. They will know 
now to protect it, so long as it remains their will 
to permit it. Congress has no power to exert 
such authority. 

Nor will the South be likely to regard the pro- 
posal of the gentleman from Ohio as any great 
benefaction while he joins with the rest in out- 
lawing the property of the South from the Terri- 
tories, or proposing to escape a fair and manly 
acknowledgment of their rights by hurrying a 
country beyond a territorial into a State capacity, 
when he knows, or believes, as do all of his party, 
that the people who would thus be invested with 
the power to adopt a State constitution would 
probably, at this time, declare against slavery, be- 
cause the bulk of that same population has been 
unused to slave labor, and is itself somewhat col- 
ored in complexion. Mr. Speaker, itis, however, 
not to be overlooked that these views of the hon- 
orable member from Ohio are but his own proposi- 
tions; they have received no indorsement; but are 
met by the report of other members of the party 
who embody, in ipsisslmis verbis, as their report, 
iheamendmentoffered byMr.CLARKin theSeiiate, 
which, having been voted for by the Republicans 
over the head of the Crittenden resolutions, may 
be justly regarded as the Republican programme. 

That report denies that the southern people 
iiave sustained any grievance or suffer under any 
wrongs. They tlius maintain their party policy; 
and with the cry of "the Union, the Constitu- 
tion, and the enforcement of the laws," prepare 
to treat as rebels all who resist their construction 
of power, privilege, or right. How different from 
this settlement is that proposed by the Senator 
from Kentucky. True, his resolutions recur to 
a geographical line, upon one side of which there 
is an exclusion of slavery, but on the other a rec- 
ognition of its status, and the clear right ac- 
knowledged to the southern people to diffuse tlieir 
property over the United States territory south 
of the line, now held or to be hereafter acquired. 
The resolutions embody the principle of partition 
between equal partners — reciprocal rights, mutu- 
ality — and therefore are acceptable, though the 
exclusion of slave property from access to the 
northern territory, is an abridgment of right al- 
ready clearly possessed, and which has been sol- 
emnly adjudged by the Supreme Court. 



I have said I am and have been willing to take 
the Crittenden compromise resolutions as a pledge 
between us, and a compact of settlement to com- 
pose this strife. The people of Kentucky will be 
satisfied with it — men of all parties. It may mod- 
ify the course of the seceded States. It will stop the 
crevasse which is hourly enlarging, and through 
whose disintegrating sides the bitter waters of fra- 
ternal discord are momentarily flowing with in- 
creased velocity and volume. Popular assemblies 
have indicated the public se^se that these are fair 
proposals, wise and just measures, and politic 
under all the circumstances of the hour. If south- 
ern and western people will accept them, what 
good reason have northern and eastern men to 
decline ? They mean peace now, and justice, con- 
cord, and security, 'for the future. If these reso- 
lutions do notpass, what will be the use of attempt- 
ing to pass others .' The seceded States cannot 
accept less than this measure of right, and their 
brethren of the slaveholding States will not ask 
them, since they have withdrawn, to return to 
the Union unless there shall be manifested some 
spirit of justice towards the cause they represent. 
Gentlemen have exhibited strong desire to keep 
the border slave States in the Union, though the 
planting States have definitively and ultimately re- 
tired from this Government. How is this to be 
effected.' Not by unmeaning eulogies upon the 
loyalty of Kentucky. God knows, I do not, what 
she may have done to subject herself to praise 
from some of the same sources to which I allude; 
but she will not be apt to weigh praises in the 
balance with interests and rights. I cannot help 
saying, in reply to the many expressions of ten- 
derness for the border slaveholding States which 
I have listened to, that if gentlemen are sincere, 
they ought to desire to meet those States in a 
spirit of fair* ess. Unite with them on the Crit- 
tenden resolutions. Give us these, and you will 
' restore union, peace, and good will. You will not 
j want a large standing army to coerce the south- 
j ern States, or a new squadron of steamers to 
j blockade their coasts, or a host of myrmidons to 
' dig the grave of American constitutional liberty. 
But pass force bills; clothe your President with 
dictatorial powers; send your volunteer armies, 
with bristling bayonets, into the heart of the 
southern country, to give the first lessons in the 
service of Republicanism; continue to outlaw our 
property, and to put us under the ban of Govern- 
ment; and I tell you that, devoted as I know Ken- 
tucky to be to the Union, and anxious as are her 
sons to maintain the Constitution, she will thun- 
der back into the ears of Federal power that she 
does not hold the Union paramount to the Con- 
stitution, and that the Constitution she upholds 
is the instrument which was intended to secure to 
her citizens an equal participancy, with the citi- 
zens of other States, in the benefits of the com- 
mon Government. 

Let it not be supposed, sir, that Kentucky, 
loyal and true as she has ever been and is, does 
not measure her rights and the rights of her peo- 
ple with exactness, or that she will not assert 
them with becoming boldness at a proper time. 
She waits with calmness the deliberations of the 
constituted authorities of the country; and her 
heart is filled with the anticipations of the joyful 
news which will give renewed assurances of peace. 



i 



UlDKHtM ur uunorvtoo 



8 



011 895 797 ' 



justice, and union. I pray she may not be doomed 
to disappointment. I ask that you will hear the 
appeals we make. But if you pass these bills; if 
you tramp with vandal heel upon the Constitu- 
tion; if you robe the President of the United 
States in the mail of the warrior, and launch your 



serried columns against the homes of our sou»h- 
ern brethren,! think I may safely promise, in the 
name of old Kentucky, that she will stand by 
her guns, and that her sons will be found true to 
her historic fame, and " fit for honor's toughest 
task." 



MR. CRITTENDEN'S JOINT RESOLUTIONS PROPOSING CERTAIN AMENDMENTS 

TO THE CONSTITUTION. 



Whereas sHrioiu and .ilariniii:; ilis-;iMisions have .-irisen 
between the northern and souihi'rn Scites, concerning the 
rights and security of the riyhts oi' the slaveholding States, 
and especially th<-ir rights in the eoninion territory of tlie 
United States ; and wluToas, it is eminently desirable and 
proper thattlioic dissrn-iions which now threaten the very 
existence of this LFnion, should be permanently quieted and 
settled by constitutional provisions, which shall do equal 
justice to nil sections, and thereby restore to the people 
that pe.ice and good will which ousht to prevail between 
all citizens of the United States : Therefore, 

Resolved hi/ tke Senate and Hotise of Representatiees of 
the United States of jimerica in Congress assembled, (two 
thirds of both Houses eoncurrin;;,) That the following arti- 
cles be, and are hereby, proposed and submitted as amend- 
ments to the (Constitution of the United States, which shall 
be valid to all intents and purposes as part of said Consti- 
tution, when ratilied by conventions of three fourths of tlie 
several States. 

Art. 1. In all the territory of the United States now held 
or hereafter acquired, situate north of latitude 38° 30', sla- 
very or involuntary servitude, except as a punisliment for 
crime, is prohibited, while such territory shall remain under 
territorial government. In all the territory south of said 
line of latitude slavery of the African race is herebv recog- 
nized as existing, and shall not be interfered witli "by Con- 
gress ; but shall be protected as property by all the depart- 
ments of the territorial government during its continuance; 
and wlien any Territory, north or south of said line, within 
such boundaries as ('on<iresa may prescribe, sliall contain 
the population requisite for a member of (Congress, accord- 
ing to the then Federal ratio of representation of the people 
of the United States, it shall, if its form of government be 
republican, be admitted into the Union on an equal footing 
with the original States, with or witliout .slavery, as the 
constitution of such new State may provide. 

Art. 2. Congress shall have no power to abolisb-slavery 
In places under its exclusive jurisdiction, and situate within 
the limitji of States that permit the liolding of slaves. 

-Art- 3. ConL're<s shall have no power to abolish slavery 
within the District of Columbia, so long as it exists in the 
adjoining States of Virginia and Maryland, or either, nor 
without the consent of the inhabitants, nor without just 
compensation first made to such owners of slaves as do not 
consent to such aholisbnient. Nor shall Ctmgress at any 
lime prohibit officers of the Federal Government or mem- 
bers of Congress, whose duties require them to he in said 
District, from bringing with them their slaves, and holding I 
them as such during the time their duties may require them to I 
remain there, and afterwards taking them from the District, i 

Art. 4. Congress shall have no power to prohiliit or bin- , 
der tlie transportation of slaves from one Slate to another, 
or to a Territory in vi-hich slaves are by law permitted to 
be held, whether that transportation be by laud, navigable 
rivers, or bv the sea. 

Art. 5. 'J'hat, in addition to the provisions of the third 
paragraph of the second section of the fourth article of the 
Constitution of the United Stales, Congress shall have 
power to provirle by law, and it shall bo its dutv so to pro- 
vide, that tlie United Slates shall pay to the owner who 
Fhall apply for it the full value of his fugitive slave, in all 
rases when the marshal, or other oirieer. whose duty it 
was to arrest said fugitive, was prevented from .so doing 
by violence or lntlmldation,or when, after arrest, said fugi- 
tive was rescued by force, and the owner thereby prevented 
and obulructed In the pursuit of his remedy for the rceov 
ery of his fugitive slave, under the said clause of the Con- 
Ptilulion and the laws made in pursuance tht.-reof. And in 
all such eases, when the United States shall pay for such 
fugltiv<r, lliey Hliall have the right, in iheir own name, to 
Bue tlie county in wlilcli said vir>|ence, intimidation, or 
reecae was cumniltlrd, and to recover froui it, with inter 



est and damages, the amount paid by them for said fugit^•e 
slave. And tlie said eomity, after it has paid said amount to 
the United States, may, for its indemnity, sue and recover 
from the wrong-doers, or rescuers, by whom the owner was 
prevented from the recovery of hisfugitive slave, in lilte man- 
ner as the owner himself might have sued and recovered. 

Anr. 6. No future amendinent of the Constitution shall 
afl'ect the five preceding articles, nor tlie third paragraph of 
the second section of the first article of the Constitution, 
nor tlie tliird paragraph of the second section of the fourth 
article of said Constitution ; and no amendment shall be 
made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to 
Congress any power to abolish or interfere with slavery in 
any of the States by whose laws it is or may be allowed or 
liermitted. 

And whereas, also, besides tliose causes of dissension 
embraced in the loregoing amendments proposed to the 
Constitution of the United States, there are others which 
come witliin the jurisdiction of Congress, and may be rem- 
edied by its legislative pow<!r ; and whereas, it is ihe desire 
of Congress, as far as its power will extend, to remove all 
just cause for the popular discontent and agitation which 
now disturb the pc-.u-c of the country, and threaten the 
stability of its iiistilutions : Therefore", 

1. Resolved hti tlie Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United Slates of Jimerica in Congress assembled, That 
the laws now in force for the recovery of fugitive slaves 
are in strict pursuance of the plain and' mandatory provis- 
ions of the Constitution, and have been sanctioned as valid 
and constitutional by the judgment of the Supreme Court 
of the United Stales : that the slaveholding States are en- 
titled to the faithful observance and execution of tho.se 
laws, and that they ought not to be repealed, or so modified 
or changed as to impair their efficiency ; and that laws 
ought to be made for the punishment of those who attempt, 
by rescue oflhe slave, or otiier illegal means, to hinder or 
defeat the due execution of said laws. 

2. Tliat all State laws which conflict with the fugitive 
slave acts, or any other constitutional acts of Congress, or 
which, in their operation impede, hinder, of delay, the free 
course and due execution of any of said .acts, are null and 
void by the plain provisions of ihe Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States. Vet those State laws, void as they are, have 
given color to practices, and led to consequences which 
have obstructed the due administration and execution of 
acts of Congress, and especially the acts for the delivery of 
fugitive slaves, and have thereby contributed much to the 
discord and commotion now prevailing. Congress, there- 
fore, in tlie present perilous juncture, does not deem it im- 
proper, respectfully and earnestly to recommend the repeal 
of those laws to the several Slates which have enacted 
them, or such legislative corrections or explanations of 
them, as may prevent their being used or perverted to such 
mischievous pmposes. 

3. That the act of leth September, IS.'iO, coninionlv called 
the fugitive slave law, ought to be so amended as to make 
the fee of the coniniissionnr, mentioned in the eighth sec- 
tion of the act, equal in amount, in the cases decided by 
him, whether his decision be in favor of or against the 
claimant. And, to avoid misconstruction, the last clause 
of the lifth section of said act, which authorizes the per- 
son holding a warrant for the arrest or detention of a fugi- 
tive slave to summon to his aid the posse eojnitalus, and 
which declares it to be the duty of all good citizens to as- 
sist him in its execution, (uight to be so amended as to 
expressly limit the authority and duty to ca.ses in which 
there shall be resistance, or danger of resistance or rescue. 

4. Tliat the laws for the suppression oflhe African slave 
trade, and especially those prohibiting the importation of 
slaves Into the United States, ought to b(! made effectual, 
and ought to be thoroughly executed, and all I'urtherenaoi- 
nienis necessary to those ends ought to be promptly made. 



/ 



